Life Science Ethics - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813809533 ISBN 13: 9780813809533

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2004

Synopsis

The first section of Life Science Ethics introduces students to essential background concepts in moral theory -- ethics, the relationship of religion to ethics, how to assess ethical arguments, and a method used to reason about ethical theories. The next section demonstrates the relevance of ethical reasoning to six topics:
-- The relative moral standing of ecosystems, nonhuman animals, and future human generations
-- The moral justifiability of genetic engineering as a whole and the patenting of life forms in particular
-- Our duty to aid the hungry
-- Our obligation to animals used to produce fiber, food, and knowledge
-- Public policies to adjudicate conflicting rights claims among urban consumers, environmentalists, and farmers over the use of water and land
-- The virtues traditionally associated with family farmsPart three provides a dozen case studies and study questions to raise relevant ethical issues and draw readers into concrete discussions of complex moral questions.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This text is a collection of original essays, case studies and discussion question that applies ethical theory to moral issues in agriculture. The book fills a significant gap in the literature of applied ethics– nonmedical bioethics. In contrast to both medical and environmental ethics, nonmedical bioethics focuses on moral issues arising in the production and use of plants and animals to serve basic human interests. The selected essays are accessible, timely and written at a level appropriate for undergraduates with critical reasoning skills, but little training in philosophical theory, but also are appropriate to a more advanced audience.

About the Author

Gary L. Comstock is Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University, author of Vexing Nature? On the Ethical Case against Agricultural Biotechnology (Kluwer, 2000), and Editor-in-chief of On the Human at the National Humanities Center.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813809533
• ISBN 13: 9780813809533
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400
• Editor: Comstock Gary L.